The Fort Wayne Mad Ants have extended assistant coach Steve Gansey’s contract for the 2011-12 season. This will be Gansey’s third season with the team.

“We are very excited to have Steve returning to the Mad Ants,” said Mad Ants President Jeff Potter. “He has demonstrated in his short time in the D-League that he has a very bright future, and we are happy to have him start his career here in Fort Wayne.”

Gansey began his career with the Ants as a volunteer assistant coach during the 2009-10 season under head coach Joey Meyer. Meyer and Potter were so pleased with his work that they hired him as assistant coach position for the 2010-11 season at the young age of 24.

The National Basketball Association and the NBA Development League announced the affiliation system for the 2011-12 season. An all-time high nine NBA teams will have single NBA D-League affiliates - more than double last season's total of four - including first-year partnerships between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Canton, the Golden State Warriors and Dakota Wizards, the New Jersey Nets and Springfield Armor and the New York Knicks and Erie BayHawks, along with the return of the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Los Angeles Lakers' single affiliate.

For the seventh consecutive year, each NBA team has one NBA D-League team to which it may assign players. During the 2010-11 season, the NBA D-League saw all-time highs in NBA player assignments (56), individual players assigned (39) and NBA teams assigning a player (25), while last season marked the first time every NBA D-League team was assigned an NBA player.

"We're very excited that an all-time-high nine NBA teams will have exclusive, 'one-to-one' relationships with their NBA D-League affiliates this coming season," said NBA D-League President Dan Reed. "This clear trend of NBA teams buying into the NBA D-League is not only a testament to our past success, but also the sign of a very promising future."

The NBA D-League will again have 16 teams playing in 2011-12, including Canton, which will play its first year in Canton, Ohio, under the ownership of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Los Angeles D-Fenders, who resume operation under the ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers after taking a one-year hiatus.

Along with Canton and the D-Fenders, the Austin Toros (San Antonio Spurs), Dakota Wizards (Golden State Warriors) and Tulsa 66ers (Oklahoma City Thunder) are fully owned and operated by their NBA affiliates. The Rio Grande Valley Vipers (Houston Rockets), Springfield Armor (New Jersey Nets) and Erie BayHawks (New York Knicks) all have 'hybrid' single-affiliation partnerships, where the NBA teams control their NBA D-League affiliates' basketball operations. Meanwhile, the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks remain solely affiliated with the Texas Legends.

The complete affiliation system for 2011-12 is listed below:

AUSTIN TOROS (TX)
San Antonio Spurs

BAKERSFIELD JAM (CA)
Los Angeles Clippers
Phoenix Suns
Toronto Raptors

CANTON (OH)
Cleveland Cavaliers

DAKOTA WIZARDS (Bismarck, ND)
Golden State Warriors

ERIE BAYHAWKS (PA)
New York Knicks

FORT WAYNE MAD ANTS (IN)
Detroit Pistons
Indiana Pacers
Milwaukee Bucks

IDAHO STAMPEDE (Boise, ID)
Denver Nuggets
Portland Trail Blazers
Utah Jazz

IOWA ENERGY (Des Moines, IA)
Chicago Bulls
New Orleans Hornets
Washington Wizards

LOS ANGELES D-FENDERS (CA)
Los Angeles Lakers

MAINE RED CLAWS (Portland, ME)
Boston Celtics
Charlotte Bobcats
Philadelphia 76ers

RENO BIGHORNS (NV)
Atlanta Hawks
Memphis Grizzlies
Sacramento Kings

RIO GRANDE VALLEY VIPERS (TX)
Houston Rockets

SIOUX FALLS SKYFORCE (SD)
Miami Heat
Minnesota Timberwolves
Orlando Magic

SPRINGFIELD ARMOR (MA)
New Jersey Nets

TEXAS LEGENDS (Frisco, TX)
Dallas Mavericks

TULSA 66ERS (OK)
Oklahoma City Thunder

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants have extended head coach Joey Meyer’s contract for the 2011-12 season. Meyer was named to the position in June of 2009.

“We are very happy to have Coach back for another season with the Mad Ants,” said Mad Ants President Jeff Potter. “We have seen unquestioned improvements every year with Joey and we look forward to that trend continuing in the upcoming season.”

In his first two seasons as head coach of the Ants, Meyer has led the team to a 46-54 record. The 2010-11 team recorded the most wins, for the franchise in a season and was half a game shy of making the playoffs with a 24-26 record. Under Meyer’s two year reign, the Mad Ants have had 3 players earn Call-Ups to the NBA.